The present invention relates generally to a heated bowl designed to prevent liquids such as water from freezing when placed outside in cold, below freezing weather, and more particularly to a heated pet bowl that permits like bowls to be stacked and nested upon one another in a stable fashion to permit the bowls to be placed on public display and/or to be stacked in a small amount of space in the home or in the store.
Heated bowls, particularly bowls designed to keep water from freezing in below freezing temperature so that a pet will have access to water or food at all times, were known prior to the present invention. The prior art pet bowls, however, all had a common undesirable feature; that is, all of the prior art pet bowls known to the inventors were not nestable in an interengaging compact fashion. In particular, the prior art heated pet bowls are manufactured by placing a heating element in the bottom of the bowl and enclosing the entire bottom of the pet bowl. By enclosing the entire bottom of the bowl there is produced a structure that does not permit the bowls to be conveniently nested or for the power cord to be conveniently stored in the bottom portion of the bowl.
The present invention also relates generally to a stackable heated bowl wherein the heating means is removable from the remainder of the bowl. The removability of the heating portion of the bowl makes immersion of the entire bowl portion possible during cleaning and permits the bowl portion to be used alone when heating is not required. Additionally, it provides for easy replacement of damaged components of the heated bowl.